Tom: Careful now. The Saturday Night Live skit was fun, and the “it is just a movie” line works. The pull quotes from this story do not:

Hanks said objectors to The Da Vinci Code are taking the film too seriously, telling the Evening Standard: “We always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown.

“But the story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense.

“If you are going to take any sort of movie at face value, particularly a huge-budget motion picture like this, you’d be making a very big mistake.

“It’s a damn good story and a lot of fun… all it is is dialogue. That never hurts.”

It is difficult to use the “it is only a movie” argument when mixed up with “dialogue is good” and “creepy censors want to shut us down” arguments.

The almost universally liked Hanks doesn’t need to get into the theological debate that Dan browns likes to fan. Stick to the obvious –it is an absurd piece of invention that makes for a fun thriller– and all will be well.